Popeye and Son - No More Friends For Popeye: Warner Cancels Vol. 2 of 'Family-Friendly' Releases

You can still count on the 9/30 release of Popeye the Sailor - Volume 3: 1941-1943, however

Posted by David Lambert

8/14/2008

Earlier this year we reported that Warner Home Video had decided to continue with the "collectible" DVD releases of Popeye the Sailor, in chronological order beginning with the black-and-white theatrical shorts which later became a staple of various television series featuring the squint-eyed sailor (starting with the 1956 program Popeye). However, their decision was to go from a 4-disc set, such as we saw with the Popeye the Sailor - Volume 1: 1933-1938 last summer, down to 2-disc sets that we're seeing with the recent June release of Popeye the Sailor - Volume 2: 1938-1940, and also with the upcoming Sept. 30th release of Popeye the Sailor - Volume 3: 1941-1943.

At the same time, though, they decided to stop trying to appeal strictly to collectors, and also release some "family-friendly" single-disc, best-of DVDs featuring color cartoons pulled from series which ran in the '70s and '80s. These releases were called "Popeye and Friends," and the Volume 1 release came out this past June featuring 8 cartoons from the 1978 Hanna Barbera-produced run titled The All-New Popeye Hour. More recently they had announced a Sept. 30th release for Popeye & Friends - Volume 2, featuring 8 cartoons plucked from 4 episodes of 1987's Popeye and Son series.

Earlier this week Warner Home Video issued a notice that they have canceled the single-disc release of Popeye & Friends - Volume 2. This notice only applies to that release; Warner is continuing with their plans to ship the two-disc set of Popeye the Sailor - Volume 3: 1941-1943 on Sept. 30th. We contacted Warner to confirm this information, and they verified that we had it correct. When asked for a reason behind the change, we were told that "Popeye has such a strong appeal to collectors, so we're focusing on that."

As of this writing, some online retailers - including Amazon - are still listing Popeye & Friends - Volume 2 for release, but we expect that to change shortly.